


Strawberry Frosted and Boston Creme

by ghoullly



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 01:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15547086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoullly/pseuds/ghoullly
Summary: Sammy has been missing for over a week and Henry makes Charlie stay with the Aftons for a few days to try and get her mind off of things.Charlie is an early bird.





	Strawberry Frosted and Boston Creme

**Author's Note:**

> me in 2015: i'm never writing a fnaf fanfiction again  
> things happen i guess. THIS DOESN'T FOLLOW STRICTLY GAME CANON OR BOOK CANON; things here are incorrect on both sides of the lore and there are going to be things mentioned that don't make canonical sense. i know this. i just had this in my head for a week and finally just wrote it to get it out of my head.
> 
> also i headcanon that william is the twins' godfather while henry is the godfather of all three afton kids. i forget if i refer to them as godfathers at all here (i don't think i did though) so if you see that that's why
> 
> i've had killer writer's block for a minute. i hope it'll end soon :c
> 
> anyways, enjoy! xx

Charlie felt bad because no matter how hard they tried, the atmosphere was still going to seem tense, but she appreciated the efforts of the Afton kids anyway.

They all crawled out of their dad’s car with the mourning little girl in tow, bags of greasy fast food in each of their hands as they tried to race her to the front door to lighten the mood. The eldest stayed behind, but Charlie forced herself to smile as the other two laughed as they waited for their dad to come up too and unlock the door.  _ We all used to do this all the time.  _ That was true.  _ All of us. Sammy, too. _

Having grown up together, the Afton and Emily children stayed the night over each others’ houses frequently; it was often joked that they had “second homes” and “second parents” (although technically, their “second dad” was also doubled as their godfather; that had been a thing). Long nights at the diner helping clean up often resulted in one of the kids asking for another to stay the night, to which their dads would never care. It was always nice to have someplace to go to if for some reason your real home was out of the question.

That was how it was right now. Sammy had gone missing a few days ago and Charlie couldn’t bear going home to their shared bedroom and facing the fact that she was going to sleep alone forever on. She had tried the night of, only to break down and have to sleep with her parents instead. 

That was why the Aftons had taken her in for a few days, treating her like porcelain and walking on eggshells around her, but trying to keep her happy nonetheless. It had more or less been Elizabeth’s idea; she and Charlie had always been incredibly close, even though Michael was born a few years before she and Sammy were. Mike was going through a “phase”, Henry had said, and didn’t think the stuff he used to think was cool was anymore. She supposed that meant hanging out with her too, because he kept to himself these days, locking himself in his room or isolating himself from conversations. Even in this delicate time (and even though William scolded him to do otherwise for Charlie’s sake), he rolled his eyes and frowned, acting totally different. Their dads stressed to her not to take it personally, that it wasn’t her but him, but a part of it still hurt.

William made no haste as he walked up to the front door and sought for his keys at a normal pace while Elizabeth complained loudly. Charlie watched Michael trudge up behind them just as the door opened and his siblings raced in, shoving each other playfully as they both tried to get to the “best chair” at the table first (all while William yelled at them not to roughhouse, of course). Charlie waited for Michael to catch up, giving him a gentle smile, to which he returned; it didn’t seem genuine, though, and she frowned as he passed her and instead went down the hallway in search of his room. She stood in dismay, feeling disconnected suddenly as she waited alone in the foyer.

“Don’t let him bother you,” William shrugged, catching Charlie’s attention, as she hadn’t even realized he had been right there, “Something’s been up with him lately. Let him be a sourpuss by himself, I guess.”

Charlie frowned, Elizabeth calling her from the kitchen. She didn’t respond to him and instead wandered back where the others were, joining them at the table and smiling at their jokes or compliments. 

Part of her wondered if she was going through a “phase” too; she wasn’t very happy anymore and a lot of her felt empty, almost as if part of her had been taken with Sammy. She cried most of the time and she felt terrible for doing it because her tears were contagious to Henry. They’d spent a good deal of their time crying on each other in the days previous before William had finally suggested borrowing her for a few to distract her from the somber environment back at home. Henry had agreed, but only because he’d still wind up able to see her at the restaurant after school. Today was Saturday, though, and they’d just come back from the diner after a long day of helping out; Charlie chose to hide underneath the tables in the comfort of the tablecloths. The costume closet was tainted now and so was the appearance of the yellow rabbit; she couldn’t bear to be in the same room with him anymore.

Elizabeth had dragged her back to her room to play with her dolls with her for the rest of the night. William had made her toys just like Henry had made Charlie’s, but Charlie knew hers were much better made; Elizabeth’s mostly looked like intricate figurines and couldn’t walk or talk like Charlie’s could. Charlie thought they were cool anyway, but when it came down to it, she preferred Theodore over anything the redhead girl had.

Speaking of, she hadn’t gone anywhere without him the last few days. He sat on top of Elizabeth’s pillow now, body slack to the side a bit as he waited to be stirred for the night, tucked tightly under Charlie’s arm as if she were afraid to let him go.

Since it was a Saturday night, none of the children necessarily had bedtimes, but Elizabeth was a firecracker that had a tendency to be so hyperactive during the day that she blacked out fairly early. Such was the case tonight, but Charlie wasn’t complaining much; the youngest brother had wandered in shortly before they went to bed with blubbery tears streaming down his face. Nightmares plagued him almost every night and he needed to sleep with someone else in order to fully rest. Elizabeth had explained to Charlie that he used to go to Michael, but with the whole phase thing, he had begun getting irritated with him and refusing to let him stay with him. That was why he came to them tonight; Charlie didn’t mind, and Elizabeth didn’t either, even though she teased him in good fun a few times.

The three kids (plus Theodore, a stuffed Fredbear, and a stuffed Bonnie much to Charlie’s discomfort) had tangled themselves in piles of blankets and squeezed onto the twin sized bed, turning out the lights and switching the TV on to watch cartoons until they fell asleep. It took no time for all of them to do so, Charlie exhausted with the emotional strain she’d had, cheek resting on Theodore’s head. 

Her dreams hadn’t been that pleasant, either. The scene replayed in her mind constantly--she saw the rabbit pry the costumes apart and look between her and her brother, making the ultimate decision to snatch Sammy away and leave her as quickly as he came. It was cruel because the dream played on loop, forcing her to relive it again and again until she woke up. 

Eventually Charlie awoke with a jolt, her forehead sticky with sweat as she blinked to adjust her eyes. The nightmare had ended with Spring Bonnie peering at her for longer than usual when he was making his choice, and she cast a nervous glance to the stuffed animal underneath Elizabeth’s chubby arm, somehow still hanging on despite the girl’s shifting so she now slept upside down. Charlie looked over to the youngest, who was tangled in a ball with Fredbear poking out from underneath the blankets, mostly unmoved. 

That was when Charlie realized a gentle shadow was cast on the wall overtop their bodies. She flinched and shot her gaze to the doorway, where a silhouette stood peering in, watching them quietly.

The little girl stifled a scream as she scrambled back to hit the wall, clapping her hand over her mouth. The person moved and stepped in a bit further, lights shifting and revealing him to be William, who raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Oh--I’m sorry, Charlie, did I scare you?” He asked softly, giving her a look of pity. Charlie’s heart banged against her chest as she forced herself to relax, gripping tightly onto Theodore anyway.  _ Nothing to be afraid of. Just him. _

The girl couldn’t bring herself to answer, though, and William glanced down at his own two kids. “I just came in to check and see if you lot were still asleep.”

“What time is it?” Charlie murmured, rubbing her eye. She didn’t feel very tired anymore.

“About 7 AM,” William explained, leaning against the doorframe. Even this early, he appeared to be lively and awake, the corners of his mouth upturned ever so slightly. “I figured you might be alright by yourselves for a few minutes.”

The man lowered his voice so he wouldn’t wake the other two. “I thought it might be nice if I ran out and got a dozen donuts or so for breakfast... how does that sound?”

Charlie couldn’t help but smile, nodding wordlessly as William chuckled in response.

“Figures. A little _too_ sugary to be remotely healthy, but I’m sure it’s fine.” He gazed upward and tapped his fingers against the frame with quiet thumps. “Would you want to come along with me, since you’re awake, then? It’s just right down the road. It’ll just be you and me, but it might be nice to get your mind off things for a minute.”

Charlie considered it for a moment, looking to the other two kids as they slept. It was true; her mind raced from the second she woke until she fell asleep, and even then, the nightmares didn’t really give her a break. Plus, she hadn’t had donuts in a while and they sounded really good.

“Okay,” she said, carefully slipping past the other two off of the bed, Theodore underneath her right arm. William turned and began down the hallway, leaving Charlie to follow; the little girl turned before she left Elizabeth’s room, glancing back on the other two. When she saw that they were still asleep, she carefully shut the door behind her, mindful enough of their dreams not to risk waking them.

The house was freezing this early in the morning; the pads of Charlie’s feet stuck uncomfortably on the icy hardwood as she sought to walk on top of any rugs she came across. She shivered, making a noise of discomfort as she did so, William turning around as he sought for his shoes.

“Are you cold?” he asked, and Charlie nodded, the man humming in thought before taking one of Michael’s many blankets off the back of the couch. That was when the girl noticed that the boy laid sleeping there; a bowl of popcorn sat below him on the floor and the TV was looping the title screen of whatever movie he was watching the night before. William tossed the blanket over to her and she barely caught it with one hand, refusing to let go of her bunny. The man slipped on his jacket with a raised eyebrow. “Will this suffice? We’ll only be gone a moment.”

Charlie nodded again and wrapped the fleece around her shoulders, shuffling over to the foyer as it dragged along the ground behind her. William found her shoes for her and she plopped down onto the floor, shoving them onto her feet hastily. He opened the front door and she felt crisp morning air creep in through the crack. There was a gentle breeze. She worried that Michael would be able to feel it and wake up, but he laid quietly, unaffected.

“Come on, now, little one,” William grabbed his keys off the hook and Charlie followed him outside to the car, climbing into the backseat. The dew was fresh on the grass and thinly coated it, the sun barely over the horizon and softly lighting the landscape. The radio was on a low volume. The blanket lay lazily draped over Charlie as she hung onto Theodore, head resting against the window as she struggled to keep her eyes open, watching the fields pass by.

“Hey, um...” William cleared his throat after a few moments, gathering the girl’s attention, “How... How are you feeling?”

She lifted her head, looking to the front seat, where she saw him watching her through the rearview. She noticed that he was looking at her longer than he was looking at the road, but she chalked it up to typical adult concern; she’d seen enough of that as of late.

“Alright,” she murmured, tiny fingers toying with the ribbon bowtie around Theodore’s neck. William furrowed his brow slightly, almost as if he didn’t believe her.

“Yeah? That’s good.” There was an uncomfortable silence for another moment, and just as Charlie went to rest her head back against the window, he spoke up again. “I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of this recently, so I won’t bombard you with questions like lots of others have.” Charlie nodded solemnly, hugging Theodore tightly. “Just know that if you need me, I’m here for you, alright? All of us are. If you need to cry on somebody other than dad, I wouldn’t mind being your shoulder. I’m... I’m really sorry you’re hurting, Charlie.”

The young girl fought back tears and nodded, managing to mumble an audible ‘thank you’ before forcing herself to watch the outside again, trying to distract herself from the living hell she had plunged headfirst into.

Like he had promised, William didn’t pry any more and turned the radio up just a bit to allow Charlie some privacy if she happened to cry. She noticed that and was thankful for it, but she also noticed that he still watched her in the rearview; adult concern.

“Will?” Charlie asked quietly. So quietly that he hadn’t heard her the first time.

“Will,” she repeated again, catching his attention, and he fumbled for the volume knob.

“Huh?” He acknowledged.

“Do you think they’ll ever find him?”

Though she couldn’t see his face, she immediately realized that he hadn’t been expecting such a loaded question, because his muscles went stiff and he gripped onto the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles faded white. Charlie knew better than to ask an adult a question like that--her mom had scolded her before for asking questions she knew the answers to already--but she needed to hear it, lie or not. She didn’t know which answer was the truth, so maybe if she heard the same one over and over, she could wish it into existence.

“...I think so,” William finally responded, the shake in his voice almost undetectable (but not quite). He nodded, almost as if to convince himself too, but his eyes didn’t dart to the rearview once. “I think they’ll find him, sweet. Just give them some time.”

This kept Charlie’s tears at bay and the two drove in silence the rest of the way there, the man turning the radio up louder than it had been before, Madonna’s new song unfitting for the aura that lingered. Charlie was thankful when William pulled into a parking spot and she could climb back out into the morning air where things weren’t so tense. She heard the driver’s side door shut and saw him wind around the front of the car, sticking his hands in his windbreaker pockets. He glanced down at his business partner’s daughter, taking in her brunette bedhead, mismatched pajamas, and glassy eyes. His gaze shifted to the purple rabbit in her arms that was half her size, and then to the patterned blanket draped over her shoulders like a cape, most of it on the dirty blacktop because of her small size. William gave her an apologetic grin, gesturing towards the car.

“Hey, Charlie, how about we leave Theodore here?--”

“-- _ No!”  _ Charlie cried tiredly, squeezing the bunny so tightly his head ought to have popped off. William immediately stepped back with his hands up, not wishing to push any buttons this early in the morning.

“Not even just the blanket? We’ll only be in for a minute; they’ll be alright out here...”

“But I’m cold... and tired,” Charlie whined, rubbing her eye. William just watched her for a moment before sighing in defeat, bending down to grab the girl under the arms. Her heart had stopped on a dime in that second; it was all too familiar. Something was off. Something wasn’t right.

That hunch left as quickly as it came, her godfather wrapping her and that bunny in the blanket like a burrito, holding her on his hip as he nudged the car door closed. 

“I  _ suppose  _ I could carry you, then,” he joked, pulling the door of the shop open, and hundreds of sweet smells hit Charlie at once, “that way the blanket doesn’t drag, and since you’re  _ tired,  _ you whiny little thing.”

Donut shops were always so cutely decorated, Charlie thought; the wall with the donuts inside seemed endless--it was basically a sugar haven. Nobody else was inside and the workers appeared to be someplace in the kitchen, having not heard the bell above the door ring over the sound of industrial sinks and dinging timers.

William stood back, away from the counter, but still stood close enough so he and Charlie could investigate.

“I was thinking two dozen,” he said, and Charlie gasped excitedly, “but only because we’ve had such a lovely guest the last few nights.”

“That’s... a lot,” Charlie observed, and William laughed.

“Yes. But that’s alright. Between the five of us, I’m sure it won’t take much time to go through both boxes by the time dad picks you back up tomorrow.”

He looked over to the girl resting on his hip, who was enthralled by the sugar wall, but not enough to distract her entirely from Theodore; his ear was being picked at gently by tiny hands.

“What’s your favorite kind of donut?” William asked her, “We’ll get a few.”

Charlie thought for a moment, furrowing her brow but not looking away from the donuts. “...Strawberry. The one with sprinkles on top,” she clarified, and William began doing math, trying to figure out each kind they could get.

“What’s yours?” Charlie asked, and William chuckled, shrugging.

“I never had a favorite, believe it or not. I’ll eat anything.” He nodded towards Theodore. “Tell you what--in place of MY favorite donut, what kind of donut does Theodore like?

“Boston creme,” Charlie rang out without having to think twice. This made William laugh loudly, which was enough to get a worker to emerge from the back to take an order. 

“You knew that off the top of your head, did you!” William grinned, and Charlie mirrored him, his happiness always (somehow) contagious. “But you didn’t know your own right away! You confuse me, Charlotte. So does your dad. Must be genetic.”

Charlie only hoped that she could be just like her dad one day; that comment made her beam ear to ear. (It was enough to let his usage of her real name slide.)

They’d grabbed their two dozen and went back to the Aftons’, the ride back home much less awkward. They’d joked about the songs on the radio, Charlie picking out a few she’d like to hear Bonnie or Fredbear sing. The blanket sat in her lap and Theodore was limp against her right arm, her grip on him much less urgent.

It had taken no time to return, Charlie careful not to let the blanket drag as she hopped out, shutting her door behind her. William bound around the front again, making sure she was in tow.

“Thanks for coming along with me, Charlie,” William smiled, finding the house key, “I had fun, even if it was only for a moment.”

Charlie smiled back, but his last comment struck her as odd; there was a few things that could have meant. But she was drawn away from that when he opened the door and the familiar smell of their home relaxed Charlie again; it smelled like candles and was second only to her own house. Michael still slept on the couch but had turned to his other side so his face was buried in the back cushions.

“Why don’t you go and wake everyone up?” William suggested, kicking his shoes off and shutting the door behind Charlie. “I could make hot chocolate, too, I guess. It’ll probably be done by the time you can round everyone up.”

Charlie nodded and went for Michael first, sitting on the edge of the couch and nudging his shoulder gently. The boy groaned, shifting again so he was further into the cushion. Charlie frowned, hearing William moving around in the kitchen, and nudged Michael harder. She was in a pretty good mood now; she had genuinely had fun. It only seemed logical that she knew Theodore’s favorite  _ everything  _ when she hadn’t even thought of her own--she knew everything about Theodore. She nudged Michael again and he finally began to stir, lifting his head and squinting, rubbing his forehead as he rolled onto his back. She was thankful that William had managed to joke and steer her away from thinking about what happened too much; that had been the main reason she’d come to stay over for a few days anyway. Henry felt that things were too stressful back at home and she needed to break away, and her ‘second home’ was of course the first thing that came to mind. William was the master of cheering people up; she supposed that was why he was good at his job--his charisma was distracting enough.

“Be careful,” an unfamiliar voice warned, and it made Charlie’s heart skip a beat; it sounded so close, yet there was nobody else around.

Michael’s head shot up too and they both looked straight towards the TV where it had come from. A plush of Fredbear sat resting against the VCR box, but Charlie swore that it hadn’t been there a minute ago. Its beady black eyes stared directly at the two children, who stared back with much less confidence. Charlie then recognized it as the same one that the youngest Afton always carried around. The voice didn’t speak up again, but the girl and boy exchanged nervous glances, quietly acknowledging that they  _ both  _ had heard it and that they weren’t going crazy. Charlie shivered, looking down at Michael, whose bedhead was just as bad as hers.

“We went out to get donuts,” she just about whispered, “and your dad’s making hot chocolate.”

“That means get up,” William ordered him from the kitchen; Charlie hadn’t even realized he could hear them. Michael rolled his eyes at his dad’s addition, pulling his legs back from where the girl nearly sat on them, and threw them over the side of the couch.

“Thanks,” Michael murmured to Charlie, and she nodded, but there was unease in his voice. He got up and shuffled his feet to the kitchen, but the girl remained for a moment, her body unable to move. She lifted her head to look at where the voice came from and her blood slushed over and turned to ice.

The Fredbear plush was no longer there and she was certain Michael hadn’t grabbed it.

Uncomfortable, Charlie got up and went to wake the other two, feeling as if she were being watched the entire time.


End file.
